Gertrude Hoffman (dancer)
Catherine Gertrude Hoffman (born May 7, 1885 in San Francisco , † October 21, 1966 in Los Angeles ) was an American dancer and choreographer .
Live and act
Hoffman was the daughter of John Hay and his wife Catherine Brogan. Her father, of German immigrant origin, came from Maine to California at the start of the Great Depression , then to Portland , Oregon, where John died in 1914. Her mother was born in Ireland and settled in California with her family.
Gertrude completed her school days in a boarding school of a nuns' convent. Already during her school days she appeared in several events. During one of these appearances - under the stage name "Kitty Hayes" - she was discovered by the actress Florence Roberts (1871-1927) and in 1901 a member of the ensemble of Sherrie Matthews and Harry Bulger.
On April 8, 1902, she married the composer Max Hoffman (1873–1963) in Baltimore ( Maryland ) and had a son with him: Max junior (1902–1945). In 1933 he was married to the singer Helen Kane for a few months .
In the winter of 1901/02 she was already the star of several revues and vaudevilles and in the Paradise Roof Garden , a revue theater in Oscar Hammerstein's Victoria's Theater in Times Square in New York .
In 1906 Hoffman was poached by Florenz Ziegfeld and one of the Ziegfield Girls . In the following year she appeared almost exclusively in the Ziegfeld Follies . During this time Hoffman began - with increasing success - to imitate female colleagues; u. a. Ethel Barrymore , Eddie Foy, Anna Held and Eva Tanguay. The role of Salome was not only one of her greatest successes, but also one of the most scandalous. Her short costume and lascivious dance resulted in several arrests, but media interest only made her more famous and popular with her followers with each arrest and charge.
After a few years, Hoffman appeared less and less and concentrated more on choreography. She founded the Hoffman Girls , an ensemble of singers and dancers similar to the Tiller Girls . From 1925/26 Hoffman and her group came under contract with Jacob J. Shubert and performed at the Winter Garden Theater in Manhattan . At the beginning of the Second World War , the Hoffman Girls were on a European tour, but were able to return to the United States unscathed.
After the Hoffman Girls broke up, Hoffman maintained a dance studio for a while before she finally retired into private life.
Honors
- The Gertrude Hoffman Glide - a kind of Two Step - was named after her in 1913
literature
- Frank Cullen: Vaudeville old & new. Amn ecyclopedia of variety performers in America . Routledge, New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-415-93853-2 (2 vol.)
- Armond Fields: Women vaudeville stars. Eighty biographical profiles . McFarland Publ., Jefferson, NC 2006, ISBN 0-7864-2583-0 , pp. 189-191.
Web links
- Gertrude Hoffman in the Internet Broadway Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Maud Allan (libretto), Marcel Remy (music): The vision of Salome .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hoffman, Gertrude |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hoffman, Catherine Gertrude (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American dancer and choreographer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 7, 1885 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | San Francisco , California , United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 21, 1966 |
| Place of death | Los Angeles , California , United States |